Today’s photo is from an event at the school district’s board meeting. The occasion was to recognize the students of three different extra-curricular activity clubs for outstanding achievement, and Bay was one of the kids recognized! He’s in a club called Youth & Government which is really interesting, and honestly, something I didn’t think Bay would be interested in, but he actually took this on all by himself and has excelled. I am so proud!
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/6.4, 1/40 sec, ISO6400 “Timex and Seiko” Cedar Park, 2018
こんばんは。How’s it going?
The other day we had to change our clocks to Daylight Savings Time here in Texas. These days, some of our clocks update automatically, while others require manual adjustment. But I think it’s kind of fun to change the clocks! Especially my watches. 😝
But one clock was always a hassle to update, and that’s my car’s clock. For one thing, I’d only notice it was wrong when I started driving, and I couldn’t adjust it because it was unsafe to do so. The clock was my car stereo which (even after 14 years) was a puzzle to figure out. Then when I arrived at my destination, I’d forget to change it, so the next time I’d get in my car and drive, the cycle would repeat itself.
My new Subaru Crosstrek has a clock on the dash, and it has simple + and – buttons, but you have to go thru the minutes, instead of just adjusting an hour at a time. So, I rolled my eyes again. However, I was pleasantly surprised to notice that the clock automatically adjusted to the correct time! I guess it picked up the time from my phone’s Bluetooth connection or Android Auto. How cool! I thought that the dash clock was just a totally separate unit, but I guess not. Yay!
That reminds me of my Sony A77 camera with its built-in GPS which would automatically adjust the time and date. Such a great feature.
Anyways, today’s photo is of two of my watches: the Seiko SKX007 and the Timex Weekender. After taking the photo, I decided to take a little video to illustrate the different hand movements of the two watches. The Seiko uses an automatic movement, which is smoother, while the TImes uses a quartz movement, which is more accurate, but not quite as elegant as it clicks away.
Ok, that’s enough time nerdery for today! (By the way, did you enjoy the “time nerd” joke in The Big Sick? Fun movie!
Did you know that Austin has a light rail system? The Capital MetroRail network is not very extensive, but it’s a nice, clean train that runs between the north part of town (near our house) and downtown. Mariko is using it this week to commute to the convention center where she is helping out at SXSW. If you do live close to one of the stations, you can drive there and park for free, then take the train downtown, and return in the evening. Parking downtown is crazy during the festival, so lots of people end up taking the train.
I took today’s photo at the Lakeline Station, while I waited for Mariko to arrive. It’s a small, but clean little station. 😀
Well, as I alluded to in yesterday’s post, I planned to hit the trails with my new Merrell Moab 2s today, and not only did I get to hike, but my son came along with me! It was a lot of fun, we enjoyed perfect weather, and the shoes worked well. I also got to try out a couple other new pieces of gear: trekking poles, a selfie stick, and the Victure 4K action camera.
First up, the BAFX trekking poles are my first pair of modern hiking poles. I previously used a wooden stick that I bought for a few dollars from Home Depot (like a big dowel rod), and it worked nicely, but was kind of heavy and took up a lot of space in the car. I did get to pretend I was Gandalf when trekking with it though…
But these new aluminum poles are a nice upgrade. Not only are they super-lightweight, but they collapse down to 25″ for storing. Using two poles instead of a single hiking stick is really great. Although the poles can help with bearing weight, I think that the main benefit is that they give you better positional awareness of your body. Now there are two additional points of reference to augment your inner ear and feet, and that makes a huge difference.
The selfie stick and action camera were a lot of fun to use, and I can see that it takes a bit of practice to get some decent footage. But I can also see that it just takes some experience in order to improve. I don’t think there are many technical aspects to master since the action cam is not so sophisticated, and the selfie stick is extremely basic as well. The video quality isn’t the greatest, but for $40 for the camera and $10 for the selfie stick, I cannot complain.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/40 sec, ISO6400 “Merrell Moab 2” Cedar Park, 2018
Hey there! Today I bought a new pair of hiking shoes, the Merrell Moab 2 Ventilators. Last week I went hiking and wore my Keen boots, but they are a size too small so when going downhill, my toes would hit the front of the boots. That’s not good. The reason I got the Keens was because I found them at an REI garage sale for only ~$15. They were good replacements for another pair of Keens that I bought for even less! So I couldn’t pass them up. However, as I found out last week, the small size won’t work for hiking.
After a bit of research, I decided to go back to hiking shoes rather than boots. I used to wear hiking shoes a long time ago and thought they were great. I also decided to forego the waterproof models and try a ventilated model, and the Merrell Moab 2 Ventilators fit the bill. These feel great because the toe-box is large and fits my foot nicely. I tried on different sizes, using a very thick sock, which is comparable to my Darned Tough socks, so I am confident that the size I chose will work out well. Tomorrow I’ll put them to the test on the trail, since the weather looks good for a hike. 🌞🌲
But if for some reason they don’t work out, I can always return them because REI has an amazing return policy.
I hope you had a great day!
またね～
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My camera & photos
I use a Fujifilm X-series camera for most of the photos on this site and my Instagram. Why not pick one up for yourself?
